


The One That Got Away

by Lyzzybelle



Series: Stories I started to write (and might one day finish) [5]
Category: Supernatural, Veronica Mars - Fandom
Genre: But Veronica does, Keith Mars died, Sam Doesn't remember, Sam and Veronica were childhood friends, Sam hired keith to look into his lost year, Souless Sam was naughty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-04
Updated: 2014-04-03
Packaged: 2018-01-18 02:51:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1412233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyzzybelle/pseuds/Lyzzybelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Veronica Mars, ex-teen detective, daughter of the former sheriff of Neptune, and she is currently on hiatus from the FBI. Her father just died. </p><p>Sam Winchester hired her father, a long time family friend, to find out more about the year when Sam had no soul. Sam and Veronica have some past history and, unbeknownst to Sam, some recent history as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**One**

Veronica walked into Mars Investigations, something that she had done countless times before. She pocketed the keys to the door and closed it behind her. She stood facing the door, her back to the reception area.

"OK, Veronica," She said to herself, "You can do this _."_

Straightening her back, she took a deep breath and turned.

Everything looked so familiar, it made her heart twist. She walked across the reception room and looked down at the front desk, making note of some things had changed from the days when she used to occupy the desk. Gone was her favorite coffee mug that had the words "Sarcasm…Just one of the services I offer" printed on it. Instead, there was a mug that had 3 smiling faces. The mug had the words, "World's best Mom" written on it. The mug belonged to Ms. Beasley.

She turned and walked into her father's office.

" _Ronnie," he said, a smile on his face, He was kneeling on the floor. The area rug under the desk had been pulled back and tools were scattered around him. He had a hammer in his hand and had been ready to pound a nail into the floorboard. "Back so soon? How did you manage to take time away from the FBI? They sure keep you busy, sending you all over the place."_

" _I'm taking a leave of absence, Dad. I needed to come back and …take care of some things." She missed him so much. "What are you doing?"_

" _Fixing this old floorboard again. Damn thing always squeaks when I walk over it." He looked over at her and fixed her with a fierce stare. "You know how that makes me crazy. That and the damn phone won't stop ringing."_

_Ronnie smiled and shook her head. "Dad, you never care about stuff like that. We had squeaky boards all over our apartment and that never bothered you at all."_

_He looked confused for a moment and looked down at his hands. "Then why do I care?"_

_He put the hammer down and stood. Then he walked up to her. "Let me look at you. You are a sight for sore eyes."_

_A lump formed in the back of her throat. "I miss you so much."_

_A brief frown crossed his face and his eyes glanced away. "I'm so sorry that I left you that way kiddo."_

_Veronica shook her head. "It's me, Dad. I should have come back more. I guess I just always took you for granted." Her eyes filled with tears._

_Concerned, he stepped forward and reached out to pull her into a hug. The mirage disappeared._

Ronnie blinked. Then she closed her eyes and inhaled. Yep. She could smell her father's cologne as clearly as if she had a bottle of the stuff in her hand. She had definitely just had a chat with the ghost of her father.

Any other person, she supposed, would have been surprised or might have questioned their sanity if they had realized that they had conversed with a ghost. Veronica didn't. After her best friend, Lily had died; Veronica had experienced many conversations with her dead friend. She had also spent the better part of her last years in high school searching for her friend's murderer.

Feeling overwhelmed, Ronnie walked out of the office and picked stacked the two remaining boxes. She hefted them and carried them out the door to her car. She was putting the boxes into her car when she frowned and a memory teased her. Hammers and squeaky floorboards…why did that seem so familiar?

Slowly she made her way back into the Mars Investigations office. As she walked across the empty room, she listened carefully to the sound of her sneakers on the hardwood floor. Step 1, step 2, step 3… _squeak_ ; step 4, step 5, 6, 7, 8, 9… _squeak…_

She made her way back from the reception area and into her father's office again and counted a total of 13 squeaky floorboards. She stood in the spot that she had "seen" her father kneeling at a few minutes ago. She gave an experimental bounce.

Nothing.

She looked down at the area rug and toed the corner of the rug back. _Squeaky floorboard all over the place, but this is the one he fiddled with, why?_

For a moment, she considered the idea that her gut was wrong, that there was nothing to see here. Move along, Veronica. Then she discarded it. Something had her Mars' spidey-sense all tingly. Ronnie looked down. Bright afternoon sun poured from the window not a few feet in front of her and she smiled when the light flashed on something metallic on the floor that had been revealed as she pushed back the corner of the carpet with her foot.

She knelt down and ran her fingers over the floor board, pushing the back-folded edge of the carpet back even more. Then 3 things happened all at once. She noticed that the "something metallic" was the shining, polished heads of 4 nails, her fingers felt the indentations of something carved into the wood and the phone rang.

Ronnie started as the old-fashioned phone that used to sit on her desk rang. For a moment, she could almost hear her father's voice. _"Ronnie, can you take a message for me? I need to finish this report on the …"_

She didn't answer the phone, but waited instead for the machine to pick up the call. Silently, she counted off the rings while her fingers idly traced the indentations on the boards.

 _Ring1, ring2, ring3, ring4, ring5…_ the machine clicked on.

Tears rolled from her eyes, as her she listened to her father's business-like voice speak in the empty rooms of his beloved detective agency.

" _Hello. You have reached Keith Mars with Mars Investigations. I'm not in to take your call, but it is very important to me. Please leave your name and number and I will get back to you as soon as possible."_

The machine clicked and there was a pause.

"Keith?"

Veronica's hand stilled. That voice…

"Keith? If you are there, pick up." She closed her eyes and memories of that voice washed over her.

She heard a loud sigh. "Damn it Keith! I have been trying to reach you for the last 2 days. I have left a million messages- I hope you will still meet me tomorrow."

Veronica stood up, and felt herself pulled towards to phone on the floor of the reception room. She stood over it and the voice continued. It couldn't be who she thought it was. Her mind must be playing tricks on her.

"Look. Just call me, OK? Please? I could really use your help. "

Then she heard another voice in the background, yelling.

"C'MON SAMMY….get off the phone. You're like a damned girl, on the phone all …" The voice faded and became muffled.

Veronica reached out with a trembling hand and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" she asked.

Again, the muffled voice and another voice, more clear…

"Dean! I told you I would be there in a second."

The muffled voice, with a teasing note this time, continued speaking. "You talking to someone Sammy? Who is it?"

"Hello?" Veronica said, louder this time. The voices on the other end of the connection continued. Obviously, no one heard her.

She heard a frustrated sigh, then…"No one Dean. It's no one-" _click_.

"Sam?" Veronica whispered.

Still holding the receiver, Veronica sank to the floor. "Sam?" she said again.

Feeling lightheaded, she replaced the receiver on the phone and stared at the answering machine.

She reached out to press the "Play" button on the machine, but stopped as she saw the blinking number. Two days ago, she had cleared all of the messages off the machine to tie up some of her father's loose ends. He had been ill over the last month and he wasn't actively working on any cases. She mainly returned phone calls to let people know that Mar's Investigations was now closed-at least temporarily, while she tried to sort out what to do.

The number of messages on the machine should only read 1. She didn't even think to look at it when she came into the offices today to pick up the last of the boxes.

Again she glanced down at the blinking red number that indicated the number of messages on the phone. There were 23 messages on the phone. Veronica pressed play.

As she listened to the messages, something sparked in her eyes. For the first time in the week since her father died, she felt something other than the numbness and grief that had been her constant companion. Veronica Mars, ex-teen detective, FBI low-level-agent-on-hiatus, daughter of Neptune's former sheriff was pissed off.

 


	2. Two

**Two**

Sam Winchester walked into the diner. Glancing around, he noted the exits and sat down in the booth in the furthest corner from the door. He drummed his fingers on the table. The waitress came over and Sam ordered a coffee, black. She slid a menu toward him and told him she would be right back. His eyes never left the door. The sky was almost pitch black and thunder rumbled across the sky. As if on cue, rain poured down.

Twelve minutes later, Sam was ready to dial Keith's number _yet again_ when the bell over the diner's door tinkled. A slight, short figure walked into the diner wearing a long trench-coat and sporting a bright green umbrella. Sam continued to watch the door and paid no attention to the newcomer as they shook the umbrella and, after closing it, stowed it near the door.

 _C'mon Keith._ He thought to himself.

The figure in the trench coat walked down the row of booths that Sam occupied, head down and fingers working the snaps. The figure pause at the booth beside Sam's and turned their back to him to remove the jacket. Sam's eyes went back to the door; his hand went to his cell phone. He was going to try calling Keith if he didn't arrive in the next minute.

"I didn't believe it." A voice said. "I had to see it for myself. But it's really you."

Sam whipped his head and looked at the person standing beside him. Stunned, he could only gape as Veronica Mars, his childhood friend and teenaged object of his affections stood beside him.

"Ronnie?" He said, quietly.

Keith had told him she was working with the Atlanta office of the FBI, so he had never expected to see her. He hadn't seen her since Keith's wedding a few years before. They had only had a few minutes to catch up at the wedding. She had offered him condolences on the death of his girlfriend and his father and had told him about her recent promotion in the FBI. He had been so happy to see her and was working up the courage to ask her to dance when her boyfriend, shooting frowning looks at Sam, pulled her away. Then he and Dean got a call from a Hunter who needed help in Nevada and they had to make their excuses to Keith and Alicia.

"In the flesh." She nodded. She tilted her head and regarded him, in a way that made his heart thump and race. "What no hug?"

A huge grin spread over his face as he stood and wrapped his arms around her 5'1 frame. For a moment, he was struck by a sense of _déjà-vu_ , like this was something he had done countless times before. He bent his head down and stopped himself as he realized that he had been about to _kiss_ her. He also realized, much to his embarrassment, that he was getting aroused. What the hell was wrong with him?

Then something unexpected happened.

One moment he had his arms around her, then she stepped back and hit him with jab, right into his solar plexus and he felt the wind rush out of him.

"Wha-?" He exhaled.

"You bastard! You have some nerve…I told _him_ what would happen…" she stepped up on to the seat of the booth beside her and launched herself at him with a right punch to his jaw, superman style. He stumbled backwards.

"Wha-?" he gasped. He was too surprised by her attack to defend himself.

"…if I EVER saw your lying, manipulative face again!" She stepped forward and with a spinning back kick to his solar plexus, sent him crashing to the wall.

Two bright spots of pink were on her cheeks and her blue eyes snapped with fury. She pulled a piece of paper from the pocket of her jeans and crumpled it up and threw it at him.

"You can keep your money, _sweetheart_. While I appreciated your suggestion that I get an abortion, turns out it was unnecessary. I miscarried. So you are off the hook, _Sammy._ "

She grabbed her coat, whirled around and strode out of the diner, into the dark, stormy night, head held high.

"Wha-? " Sam gasped again, trying to get air back into his lungs.

His confused, pained gaze fell up the paper on the floor. Grimacing, he bent down to pick up the paper and uncrumpled it. In disbelief, he started at the check she had thrown at him. His eyes widened as he recognized the name of the bank. Then he looked at the date.

"Oh Fuck!" he groaned. He pulled some money from his pocket and grabbed his cell phone. Tossing money on his table, he followed Ronnie out the door. She was already behind the wheel of her vehicle and was driving away.

He knew he was NOT supposed to poke and pick at the missing gap in his memory. He knew the consequences would be dire. Frustrated, Sam stared after the red taillights as the rain poured down.

_What have I done?_

An image flickered beside Sam and the apparition appeared, his expression became mournful. Sam hated that the specter could do that, appear to be sympathetic to Sam.

"Oh Sam. You really don't want to pick at that particular scab, do you?" Lucifer asked, as he titled his head toward the disappearing SUV.

Savagely, Sam jabbed his thumb into his palm. The image disappeared.

Sam knew what he needed to do. He needed to find Keith.


End file.
